Garment bags that are attachable to luggage are known in the prior art. In particular, there exist garment bags that combine with carrying cases to form single units for airplane travel. These devices have been developed to remedy the problem where a business person carrying documents and/or office equipment must carry a separate attache case in addition to a carrying case (made to fit underneath or above an airplane seat) and a garment bag which may be hung in a closet compartment in an airplane. By way of example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,420,068 and 4,206,835 illustrate various devices adapted to combine a garment bag to a carrying case for train or airplane travel.
Specifically, the device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,206,835 employs a carrying case having a length substantially equal to the width of a garment bag. The garment bag is long enough to cover the bottom and side walls of the carrying case. The carrying case has rings on its top panel for connection to four terminating hooks attached to each end of the garment bag. The device described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,068 employs a garment bag having a harness opening at one end and two terminating clips at the other for insertion through the harness opening so that the garment bag attaches to a specially configured handle of a carrying case in a single folded state.
While the above described devices perform their intended purpose, they lack capacity to perform on a daily basis for work.
In hot weather, a business person usually removes his/her suit coat and holds it on his/her arm, throws it over his/her shoulder or places it down on a nearby seat. This causes inconvenience to the business person and causes the coat to wrinkle or soil. If the business person chooses to use one of the devices of the prior art, he/she is restricted to using the particular type of carrying case adapted for that particular type of garment bag, and cannot use his/her own normal attache case. Furthermore, when the carrying case of the prior art is placed on the ground, the garment bag attached thereto drags on the floor, causing the suit coat in it to wrinkle. In addition, the weight of the garment bag when attached to the carrying case will tend to cause the case to topple over, again causing the suit coat to wrinkle.